While it's technically a regression, and while it will surely make those of us who remember having to install DVD support on Linux from third-party repositories smile, it's still a major change and a sign of things to come: Windows 8 will ship without support for DVD and Blu-ray playback.

No, you can't download the Blu-Ray quality .mkv files legally in the US. So the legal solution is to obtain the optical media via netflix, redbox, ect, or stream it from legit sources. Strangely enough, that's what most people do here.

Its easy to say " Fix the Law" its much more difficult to write legislation that is fair to all parties. I do believe that people have a right to be paid for their work, if they choose to be.

The problem as I see it is that:

1) The copyright term is unjustly long.
2) Companies who hold copyright want to be paid more than the market will bear, which creates a black market ( pirating).

The first problem could theoretically be fixed by legislation ( although every time its come up, our laws have been changed to *increase* copyright term).

The second cannot be fixed with legislation or technology, and if, by some miracle we fix the first problem, its just going to make the second problem worse ( with shorter copyright the industries will want to charge more while they can).